Ipswich supremo David Sheepshanks has vowed that his relegated club will bounce back to the top flight immediately as First Division champions.

And the emotional chairman refused to blame manager George Burley for the club's sad demise and insisted that responsibility was shared with himself equally to blame.

Sheepshanks said: "George is the right man to bring Ipswich back to the Premiership in 12 months.

"He's very talented and won manager of the year last season, and whatever lessons we have learned this season - and there have been several - they will make us and him better for it.

"I want to make it very clear that the responsibility for relegation is a collective one, I take as much of the blame as anyone.

"Ultimately the buck stops with me and my directors. Now the target for next season is to win the First Division."

And the Tractor Boys' boss admitted they were distracted by Europe at the beginning of the season and the new players - many foreign - that joined the club did not gel into the team quickly enough.

Sheepshanks was talking after witnessing the 5-0 mauling at Liverpool that sent Ipswich plunging out of the top flight.

He insisted that he still has absolute faith in Burley to produce the transformation of immediate promotion, and claimed that there would not be wholesale departures from Portman Road.

He said: "My message is that this will not spell the devastation of Ipswich Town.

"On the contrary we are stronger than we have ever been, we have the best playing squad we have ever had with a talented group of people who work for the club and make it what it is.

"We have a much improved stadium and altogether the infrastructure to support a successful Premiership club.

"Relegation will be a bitter pill and a salutary experience but we have to use that to bounce back all the stronger."

He added: "Our objective is to come back and win the First Division at the first attempt.

"I have no doubts that we will do that and we will be installed as the favourites because of the squad we have."

Sheepshanks accepted that some players will leave, but not that there would be a mass clear-up.

He said: "The financial consequences of relegation these days mean a degree of squad re-organisation and that will have to happen.

"There will be some player movements but given the value and strength of the squad that George Burley has built up, I hope that this will not be too detrimental to the overall strength.

"When you consider the young players we have, and we won the Premier League reserve league with so many home grown players, it suggests the future is bright.

"We will be looking to build on those strengths."

Sheepshanks admitted mistakes were made, and said: "The early days of the season saw our eyes being on Europe and over the whole course of the season we finished where we deserved to finish.

"We recruited a large number of players, some from abroad, because we were in Europe and it wasn't easy to assimilate all those into the cohesive unit of years gone by. But that's history now.

"But I am confident we have the spirit in the dressing room to bounce back but it will be a difficult time until we wait to see how certain movements unfold.

"We invested £15million in transfer fees not to mention the money for wages; it's not a bottomless pit and there wasn't much left around transfer deadline day.

"We invested a lot more than some clubs at the lower end of the Premiership, with every good intention. Some of those investments will prove to be extremely good in years ahead.

"Clearly they haven't improved the squad this year and the fact is you need to improve year on year. That didn't happen this season."